The 2 A-Wings shot out of the hanger and quickly accelerated to maximum speed, shooting past Kyp and Wire as they returned tiredly from their patrol.

"Our seats in the Mug are still warm," Zoom joked across the squadron's private frequency to Kyp.

Kyp chuckled, "They'll stay warm if I have anything to do with it. Kyp out."

Kyp's flight slowed down and gracefully entered the hanger. Zoom circled his fighter around the Regis, taking in its familiar shape, its sleek deadliness waiting to be unleashed on any Imperial that dared to attack it. As Zoom circled he automatically started to charge up his outer shields, Rapier did the same.

"Red Flight A, we are tracking incoming ships from hyperspace. Feeding their vector to you now."

"Roger that Regis." Zoom replied.

Zoom powered up his engines to maximum and started to head towards the vector. His computer started to register incoming ships. Gunboats. He quickly looked at the estimated distance. 24 km. Zoom disregarded the gunboats and placed them into his computers memory, as a possible threat. He went back to circling the Regis.

"Red Flight A, sensors show that the gunboats are going to hyperspace, probably just a small patrol.." The duty officer reported.

"OK, continuing standard patrol." Zoom said. "We'll be on guard though."

Captain Daly sat alert in his command chair, it had been 2 minutes since the gunboat patrol had hypered in, he knew it would only be a matter of time before every Imperial in the sector was hypering towards them. The signal jamming the Regis was deploying would not stop the gunboats from transmitting when they exited hyperspace.

The entire primary bridge crew were arriving quickly after the alert. They walked quickly onto the bridge, then moved towards their stations, ignoring the noise and activity on the bridge. Lights flashed in all of the sunken stations.

"Lt McCall." Daly called to the Regis's comm officer. "How long until the Liberty is due to arrive?"

"About 12 minutes, Sir" She reported crisply.

Abruptly the ship wide alarm sounded. The sensor officer shouted that an Imperial Frigate had arrived. The bridge became more noisy as officers jabbed orders into the intercoms. The ship started to hum as the generators were brought up to full power. Lights dimmed for a second as shields and weapons were quickly charged.

"Order Red Squadron to engage." Daly shouted to Lt McCall. He turned towards the weapons station. "We will hold station until the Liberty arrives."

The Mug was busy as usual, most people who were on the Regis visited the Mug at regularly. The Mug was one of the most comfortable parts of the Regis, its lighting was much more gentle, giving the Mug a warm feeling. Around the walls there were several well lit sabbac tables. The bar bots worked quickly and efficiently behind the well lit and well stocked bar.

Kyp and Wire walked into the Mug, still in their flight suits, too tired to take them off. Their shadows were cut off as the main doors closed behind them. They walked up to the main bar where several of Red Squadrons pilots were talking and laughing. Sean 'Leo' Healey looked up and saw the two approaching pilots.

"Hey, Wire you look like you've been riding a bantha." He joked, noticing Wires difficulty in walking.

"You'd be like me if you had to sit in the cockpit of an A-Wing for an hour."

"I happen to think that the A-Wings cockpit is rather comfortable." Dragon remarked.

"What'll it be?" Phoenix replied to diffuse some of the developing tension, that had crept into the Squadron since the plans to destroy the ISD Wisp had been revealed. "I'm buying."

"Hot chocolate." Kyp responded.

"I'll have a Ithorian Tea, please." Wire said.

The bar droid quickly made the drinks and slid them up the bar to the waiting pilots, who started to drink them thirstily.

Abruptly the general alarm went off. The Red Squadron pilots looked at each other and started to run towards the nearest lifts. Leaving their drinks to get cold. Kyp and Wire got into the last available lift.

"Hangar, non-stop." Kyp shouted at the lifts AI unit. "Priority order, 156/2"

Zoom watched as the shape of a Frigate dropped out of hyperspace. Rapidly slowing down until it was only 6 km away from the Regis.

"Red Flight A, engage the enemy. We must hold out until the Liberty arrives." The Regis's Tactical Officer said.

Zoom did not respond, instead he set his ELS to combat mode and accelerated towards the frigate, which was starting to launch TIE Bombers.

"This should be easy..." Zoom said to Rapier. "... Wait. Detecting the launch of 3 T/As."

"You go after those bombers, I'll cover you." Rapier replied confidently. "Just try to take a T/A out as you pass them."

."OK, those T/Bs are as good as dead." Zoom replied more cordially than he felt at that moment.

Zoom watched the distance to his targeted T/A close rapidly. He switched to dual missiles the targeting computer started to beep. Once. Twice. An eternity passed. A continuous tone. The targeting reticule turned Red. Zooms fingers closed on the trigger. His A-Wing jumped as the 2 high velocity projectiles shot out of his craft. Homing on the T/A who was busy targeting Rapier. Impact. The T/A was ripped apart by the force of the explosions. Nothing remained.

Rapier loosed two missiles at one of the T/As targeting Zoom. The suddenly alert pilot pulled up seconds before the missiles impacted. Rapier was already concentrating on the second T/A.

"I'm covering your six." Rapier said happily to Zoom, as he fired his lasers hitting a T/A that was trying to target Zoom.

"Roger that. I'm on these bombers."

Zoom set his ELS for maximum speed, and headed towards the nearest bomber. He locked a missile onto it and fired. The missile blew the weak TIE into small pieces as it impacted on its warhead bay. The A-Wing shot passed the two remaining TIE Bombers, turning rapidly to come onto their six. The blue streaks of torpedoes headed towards the Regis. Zoom fired a missile into the exhaust of the rearmost T/B. Explosion. Switched to lasers. Another blue streak. Zoom fired three double shots at the last T/B. The TIE ripped into two, the pilot ejected just as the main cockpit exploded.

Rapier fired again at the T/A that was trying to follow Zoom. The laser blasts splashed against its shields. The pilot broke, expecting the A-Wing to follow. Rapier turned to the other T/A who had just shot down the missiles that had been homing on it. He fired several laser blasts at it forcing the pilot to break. He pushed down hard on his stick. Narrowly avoiding a hail of emerald laser fire passing along his previous course. He turned rapidly, cutting his speed. Armed his missiles. The surprised TIE came into his sights. He pulled on his trigger. A missile jumped from its rack, ramming dumbly into the T/A's already weakened shields. Shearing the back of the fighter off. The T/A spun out of control, then exploded.

Kyp and Wire sprinted out of the lift as it finally came to a halt in the hangar. They saw Pappy and headed towards him. The hangar bustled with excitement as the techs ran about to get every fighter operational.

Pappy saw the two pilots running towards him. "Those X-Wings are the only ones available." He shouted, pointing at two nearby fighters.

The two pilots changed direction as quickly as they could, almost ramming into an enthusiastic tech. Abruptly the entire ship shuddered as proton torpedoes impacted against the Regis's shields. Kyp jumped into the nearest fighter, pressing the canopy button as he shoved on a helmet the fighters tech handed him.

Kyp looked across to see Wire was in his X-Wing. He started the emergency start procedure on his X-Wing. The craft responded sluggishly as he lifted it off the deck and asked for launch permission. He fired up his manoeuvring jets and started accelerating towards the hangar entrance. Wire followed a few seconds behind. The second he was out of the hangar Kyp fired up his main engines and headed towards the Imperials at full throttle.

Zoom fired another missile it rammed into the fifth T/B which went the way of his former victims. But they managed to fire a torpedo or two at the Regis each time. Lasers again. The pilot ignored the laser fire on his weak hull. He let off another torpedo before his TIE exploded from the stress of the pummelling.

Rapier fired at the T/A again. Hitting it again. Again the pilot broke. This time Rapier was ready for it. He fired. The T/As shields disintegrated and the lasers ate greedily into its hull. The engines shorted out. The pilot ejected. The last of Rapiers lasers hit the T/A, it exploded. Rapier accelerated towards the Imperial Frigate, arming his missiles, as it launched a new wave of T/As.

Flash. Small pieces of TIE impacted onto Zooms shields as the fanatical pilots died in their straight line runs. Lasers. The twelfth TIE exploded a few seconds later.

"I think that is the last of the Bombers." Zoom said into the comm system. "Lets see if we can't bag this frigate."

Rapier pulled back on his control stick. Abruptly changing to a sideways movement. The tracking laser fire swept upwards. Rapier aimed. Lasers ran hungrily towards the shaken TIE Advanced. They cleaved at the shields, buckling. The T/A swerved. A mass of orange fire swept into its path. The pilot ploughed into it. The craft disintegrated.

"Yeah haw!" Wire shouted jubilantly.

"Two more to go. Lets not get excited, yet." Kyp said dryly.

"We'll concentrate fire on that A-Wing."

"Revenge!" Screamed the second pilot.

The two flights closed rapidly. They started to spit streams of fire at each other, one emerald, one orange. The two sets of craft met and started turning like a nest of snakes. Another small, sleek craft shot into the melee firing orange death from each side.

The lights on the bridge glowed brightly. The crew bustled purposely, quickly. They all glanced at the tactical display seeing the blue streaks of torpedoes. Bracing for impact. The whole ship shuddered and jumped at every hit, reeling in pain. Crash. A mug fell to the floor. Lights dimmed. Another impact.

"Shields at 62%, sir." A young officer called from the weapons pit.

"That Frigate is moving to intercept us!" an Ensign called.

The lights dimmed again.

"61%"

"Divert more power to shields. Order all laser batteries to open fire on the Frigate as soon as it is in range." Captain Daly ordered, calmly, from his seat. "Ask Red Squadron to assist if possible."

A chorus of "Yessirs" greeted his orders.

The two imposing Nebulon-B class Frigates closed slowly on each other. Eyeing each other. Suddenly they started to spin laser fire in a glaring web of destruction. Splashes of light illuminated both of the ships hulls as waves of energy expended themselves against shielding.

Zoom looked up from the dogfight as Rapier blasted TIE Advanced that was pursuing him. He saw a wall of lasers flying between the duelling forms of the Regis and the Imperial frigate.

"Kyp, Wire. Engage that frigate. We will cover you." Zoom ordered. "We must ensure the survival of the Regis."

Kyp and Wire accelerated towards the Frigate arming their torpedoes, waiting for the lock tone, then firing every warhead at the frigate. The two X-Wings dove at the Imperial frigate, firing. Slashing up and down its hull as they dodged the sporadic fire it launched in their direction.

Zoom dodged sideways narrowly avoiding a stream of lasers. He turned quickly trying to get onto the tail of his opponent.

The T/A quickly turned out-manoeuvring the A-Wing. The pilot was just about to turn onto the tail of his quarry when his shields started to drop rapidly. The pilot broke. Another hail hit his craft. Panels sparked, failed, never to work again. The pilot turned desperately. Another hit. The eject alarm sounded. He scrambled about. Fumbling for the lever. He pulled.

The T/A exploded as another of Zooms lasers hit home.

"Looks like the Frigate is launching another flight."

"Our shields are starting to fail." Lt McCall reported. "We must destroy that frigate."

Wire lined up for another attack run. His shields were nearly full. He knew he must do as much damage as possible to the frigate. He charged straight at the frigates hull his lasers firing at the ship, burning a hole into it.

Suddenly a wave of emerald fire started to impact on Wires shields. They dropped rapidly. He desperately tried to avoid the three TIEs that were pounding him. He reached for his eject lever.

"Noooo." He screamed as he pulled. His fighter exploded near him. Darkness engulfed him.

Rapier and Zoom charged into the formation of T/As lasers firing. One of the TIEs exploded as a flurry of lasers hit him. Zoom changed course and started to fire on the frigate as Rapier took on the remaining T/As.

The Imperial frigate was in bad shape. Every time one of the lasers from the Regis hit it a great gush of flame lit up the scene as the frigates atmosphere ignited. Electrical fires burned in every new hole created by the searching turbolasers. Suddenly secondary explosions started to rip through the Imperial frigate as a laser found a critical component. Parts of the hull started to peel away. The frigate started to roll as manoeuvring thrusters fired randomly. The reactor went critical, incinerating the entire ship. Only a few bits of floating hull plating remained.

Rapier's computer suddenly brought up the first good news that he had seen on this patrol so far. He saw the massive organic shape of the CRS Liberty decelerating from hyperspace. As soon as it came to a halt four X-Wings launched.

"Rogue Leader to Red Squadron, permission to join the party."

"This is Red Leader, you may as well, but its almost over." Zoom grinned, he switched channels to the Regis. "Could you send a S&R shuttle to look for Wire?"

[Next Day...]

Wire woke. His head was having a hammer slammed against it. He groaned, and slowly tried to open his eyes. Pain seared through his brain. Feeling started to return to his body, a thrumming ache dominated it. He tried to open his eyes again this time the light did not ravage them as much. He tried to focus on the blurry form in front of him. The form came into focus, it was Kyp.

"How are you feeling?" Kyp asked his friend and wingman gently.

"Like I've just been trampled on by a heard of banthas!" He replied groggily. "How long before I can fly?"

"The med droid says you can get out of here anytime you want, but that you should not fly for a couple of days." Kyp answered kindly. "You should be OK for the attack though, so don't worry."

Wire put his head back down and slept for several hours.

Rapier walked into the brightly lit main briefing room on the Regis. He saw most of the squadron sitting in the ordered rows of chairs, he noticed two pilots from Rogue Squadron sitting at the back. He walked to the front row and sat next to Mario 'Phoenix' Rodgers. Phoenix turned to talk to him.

"Hi Rapier," He said. "What do you think this briefing is about?"

"I should imagine it is about the attack on the Wisp." Rapier replied, motioning the Rogue Squadron pilots. "I think that this would be the only reason they would be here."

"With Rogue around I'd say we have no..."

"'te-hun." Someone shouted as Zoom, Kyp and Captain Daly walked into the room. All of the pilots jumped to their feet and saluted, almost in unison."

"At ease," Zoom waited while the pilots sat down. "We have been flying practice missions with Rogue Squadron recently in preparation for our attack on the ISD Wisp, which still has a sizeable fighter complement onboard. We will conduct this operation in two parts. In the first we will remove most of the Wisp's primary fighter defences. In the second which should follow within an hour of the first we will take out the Wisp, removing it as a threat both to Red Squadron and the Alliance. I will now hand over the briefing to Captain Daly who has been placed in overall command of the operation to destroy the Wisp."

Zoom sat down at the front of the briefing room, as Captain Daly stood and prepared to speak to the gathered pilots.

"As many of you are aware an Imperial Star Destroyer is a very difficult ship to destroy when it is fully operational. Its fire power can only really be matched by that of our Calamari Cruisers, but even then our cruisers will come out of the mission badly damaged, if at all. The other threat that Star Destroyers pose is their overwhelming number of fighters."

Daly paused, looking at all of the pilots, seeing the new faces as well as the familiar faces. He thought about how much he would miss them all if the mission went wrong, not that he would ever tell them that.

"Luckily for us though our recent operations have severely depleted the Wisp's fighter compliment, they also have a damaged hyperdrive. This makes them a much easier target as they cannot outrun us in subspace or in hyperspace. Our probes have intercepted a transmission that the Wisp will be receiving supplies from a convoy in a matter of hours. We cannot allow this to happen."

The pilots started to mutter to themselves about the task ahead of them. Kiki raised his hand. "Sir, does this mean we are going to have to attack the Wisp before the convoy arrives?"

"No, we have developed a plan that will let us destroy the convoy, and at the same time lure the Wisp's remaining fighter complement into a trap. Three Y-wings from Red Squadron will hyperspace into the area with an escort of two X-wings from Rogue Squadron. They will proceed to destroy the entire convoy. This attack will take place when the convoy exits hyperspace at its rendezvous point near the Wisp. The Wisp's captain is sure to want the convoy to arrive safely and should send a strong force to drive the attackers off. This is when we spring our trap." Daly paused again. "Three X-Wings will be waiting in a nearby area of space only a few seconds away. When the reinforcement's are approaching the convoy, the X-Wings will jump in behind them and proceed to destroy the surprised enemy."

Captain Daly sat down. Kyp got up and walked to the podium. "We must destroy all of the Imperial reinforcement fighters in this mission, the convoy must also be destroyed. The Y-Wing flight will be lead by Rapier, he will have Redjed and Phoenix on his wing."

Kyp paused as a series of groans died down frm the pilots. "The X-wing flight will be lead by Zoom, he will have Ranger and Carcajou on his wing. The assigned pilots will be ready for this mission in one hour. The rest of us have a short time for some R&R before we get to go in as well for the attack against the Wisp. Good luck. Dismissed."